Kerala's steps to absorb shock to tourism over Nipah

Even as Nipah is reported in Kerala for the second consecutive year, the state tourism industry is pinning hopes that the proactive initiates of Kerala Government in countering the disease will absorb any damages that the industry could have faced.

Following the Nipah outbreak in Kerala last year, the state's tourism industry that has international attraction, suffered a major setback as many tourists cancelled their plans to come down to Kerala.

However, this time even when suspicions over Nipah came up the Kerala government acted proactively to contain its spread. The tourism industry leaders feel that this would help in a big way.

Kerala based hospitality industrialist and National Tourism Advisory Council member E M Najeeb said that though there were enquiries from international tour operators over the last couple of days about the situation in Kerala due to Nipah, we could convince them by citing official announcements of the state government that there was no need to panic.

It was the spread of misinformation through social media that mainly hit Kerala tourism last year. While Nipah cases were reported only from two districts in Kerala last time, messages that the entire state was caught up in the grip of Nipah were spread. This time the government had warned against spreading misinformation and even booked a couple of persons for spreading misinformation.

Kerala Tourism Minister Kadakampally Surendran told DH that official communiques allying fears over Nipah were being issued by the state government in English also so that it reaches the international community. "The state government is repeatedly announcing that there was no need for panic as the situations are very well under control. Hope this message would ally the fears of the tourists also," he said.

Last year, apart from Nipah the devastating floods had also badly hit the Kerala tourism sector. However, over the last few months, the Kerala tourism was showing signs of a revival with the number of tourist arrivals increasing by 6.82 per cent during the first quarter of 2019 compared to the corresponding period of 2018.